EFFECTS OF TRAINING IN COGNITIVE COPING AND TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES ON TEST ANXIETY AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN TEST-ANXIOUS BACCALAUREATE NURSING STUDENTS (BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION, SKILLS).
Contributors: University of Southern Mississippi.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 224
Subjects: Psychology, Experimental.; Education, Adult and Continuing.
Description: This study analyzed the effects of cognitive coping, test-taking, and a combination of cognitive coping and test-taking strategies on interfering thoughts, knowledge of effective examination behaviors, test anxiety, and academic achievement in test-anxious, sophomore, baccalaureate nursing students. Test anxious students from two southeastern universities were identified by Alpert and Haber's (1960) Achievement Anxiety Test (AAT) as those students whose debilitative score exceeded their facilitative score.

Within each school participants were randomly assigned to a cognitive coping, test-taking, a combination of cognitive coping and test-taking, or a no treatment control group. The three treatment groups received four 30 minute training sessions once a week during the four weeks immediately preceding the final examination. A two-way analysis of variance (schools x treatments) was used to analyze the groups' responses to the dependent variables. A one-tailed Dunn's test was used to analyze any group differences in interfering thoughts and test anxiety, while Newman-Keuls' comparisons were made for the non-directional hypotheses.

The two-way ANOVA revealed no significant schools by treatments interactions on any of the dependent measures. Main effects indicated a significant difference only for the Examination Behavior Scale. Groups receiving test-taking strategies displayed significantly greater knowledge (p = .05) of effective examination behaviors than the cognitive coping or the control group. The study indicates that training in effective test-taking strategies can increase knowledge of effective examination behaviors more readily than training in cognitive coping strategies can produce changes in behavior. Anxiety-reduction techniques of a cognitive-behavioral approach, test-taking skills, and study skills are indicated for the treatment of test anxiety.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-03, Section: B, page: 1301.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI, 1985.

School code: 0211.